Fade in on Alfred Hitchcock and Michael Powell quaffing beers at a London pub following a busy day of shooting Blackmail (1929):
Hitchcock: “Did you get enough stills of Miss Ondra today, Mr. Powell? Some women are made for viewing through a lens. Unfortunately for our lovely Miss Ondra, she was designed for a silent movie lens.”
Powell: “I always endeavor to be professional, Mr. Hitchcock.”
Hitchcock: “Endeavor away, my boy, but our work is legalized voyeurism and often little more than that. Everyone gets a charge out of watching a pretty woman in a state of undress. In America, they think the movie camera was invented to film horses but we know better than that. It was invented for filming lingerie.”
Powell: “I prefer to think that movies have progressed beyond the peep show stage. What you are describing has a technical term and it’s not a nice one: it’s called scoptophilia, the morbid urge to gaze.”
Hitchcock: “Yes, our audiences are eager scroptophiliacs— that is a lovely word. We filmmakers drill the hole in the wall that the audience looks through. The audience may not admit it, but they hope the hole will look into the bedroom.”
Powell: “You’re talking about pandering. As a director, I would hang a beautiful picture over that hole.”
Hitchcock: “And I would have my hero take that picture down and peer through the hole at the undressing heroine in the next room.”
Powell: “Your hero sounds like a very sick man to me. I would advise the heroine to exercise great caution around him.”
Hitchcock: “She is wearing white lingerie and is very attractive in it. I think you would enjoy filming her very much with your tripod, camera, and lens, Michael. You must learn to become comfortable with the dark side of your desired profession. Voyeurism is the sport of the invalid and all cinema-goers are temporary invalids. Place me alone in a flat and I’ll stare out the window at the rooms across the way, imagining scenarios for each of my neighbors. Every room I see looks like a movie set—it’s the curse of the movie director. You may not see it yet, Mr. Powell, but wait until you direct a movie. You may turn out to be the greatest voyeur of them all!”
© 2012 Lee Price
